


Those Hands Pulled Me from the Earth

by reeseplease



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Gore, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Kent is mentioned briefly, M/M, Swearing, Vampires, there isn't any actual self harm but still warning for that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-21 18:14:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12463185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reeseplease/pseuds/reeseplease
Summary: Jack goes for a walk in the woods after a rough game, and finds Eric. Who just happens to be a vampire.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in a burst one night, but it will be multiple chapters! I don't know how often I'll update bc of life, but I promise I won't leave you hanging too long!

Jack’s body shuddered as another sob ripped through him. They had lost. It was his last game as a college student, his last before he went to an NHL franchise. And he couldn’t help but think it was all his fault. He WAS captain. Rationally he knew that they all played well, and it just wasn’t going to happen, Harvard was better tonight and it happens. But Jack wasn’t feeling super rational, he was just feeling like crap sitting on the palettes in the loading dock area, completely alone.

After a while, Shitty found him.

 

_/•\\_

 

The mood in the Haus was as somber as it was on the bus. Everyone was quiet, and no one seemed to want to be the one to break the ice. Johnson finally broke the silence by saying, “We did well, guys. We all know it, but it still sucks. I am proud of us though.”

For whatever reason, it seemed to soothe everyone a little. People felt a little better, and broke out into the casual conversation that was just seconds ago absent. Everyone but Jack. He was still beating himself up inside and didn’t know whether he wanted to talk to someone, go upstairs and isolate himself, or just start screaming in the middle of the Haus where he was standing. He opted for isolation, and started to head towards the stairs when Johnson stopped him.

“Hey man, I’m going to stay with my girlfriend for a few nights. Do you want to walk with me to campus? You look like you could use a walk.”

Jack had no desire to go for a walk with Johnson, but for some reason he found himself nodding, and grabbing his jacket and scarf.

 

“Jack, I know this isn’t going to make much sense, but maybe this is what you need right now,” Johnson said out of the blue half way to campus.

“What?”

“The loss, maybe you just-”

“Johnson, I didn’t NEED a loss. It fucking sucks, I know I get in these like, super competitive moods, but really? You’re going to tell me I NEEDED this?” Jack said his voice raising.

“Sorry, I-I didn’t mean… I guess I just didn’t think.”

Jack sighed, “I’m sorry too, I didn’t mean to yell.”

“I couldn’t have asked for a better Captain, Jack. It’s been a honor playing with you, and I can’t wait to see you in the NHL.”

Jack laughed, “Dude, we still have a few months before graduation, it’s not like I won’t be seeing you ever again.”

“We don’t know that.”

Jack turned to Johnson to question the statement, and found he was already heading into his girlfriend’s building. Before he went all the way in, he turned back to Jack.

“You don’t need to be better, man, you just need to figure some stuff out.” And with that he was gone.

Jack was left alone again, but this time he was confused. He knew he was always talking about being better, but he couldn’t figure out why what Johnson said hit him so hard. He shoved his hands in this pockets and decided to take the long way back to the Haus. He wasn’t even sure if anyone else knew where he was, once he thought about it. He could take a few more minutes without anyone worrying, hopefully.

Jack was wondering along the tree line when he approached the entrance to the running trail for the cross country team. It wasn’t lit, and it lead pretty far into the woods before it curved back around closer to campus, but at no point did it leave the actual campus, and although the rest of the paths were in well lit urban areas, Jack found himself following the path.

The wind was picking up a little, making the already dark path seem even creepier. But Jack didn’t care, he still going over in his head, “You don’t need to be better.”

Be Better

Jack dug into his pocket and grabbed his wallet. He pulled out an old picture of him, his dad, and a ripped in half Kent. On the back in terrible handwriting, the words “Be Better” were scratched in. The ink was coming off, but the indentation of the pen on the picture lasted. They were his father’s words, but it was Kent’s writing. The rest of the note said something along the lines of “We’ll do this together. Together can Be Better” but all that was left on the part he kept with him was the ‘Be Better’. Sitting in his wallet, with Kent’s one eye staring at him, and his Dad looking at the Jack in the picture, he felt the pressure constantly. Be Better. He didn’t want to BE better, he wanted to enjoy hockey. He wanted to experience the pure excitement of scoring a goal in a game, without the afterthought of how he could have made it cleaner. He wanted to get a penalty and laugh it off like Shitty instead of beating himself up in the box. He wanted to be able to sit on the bench while losing a game and not come close to a panic attack at the idea of it.

Without thinking, Jack screamed, balled up the photo and threw it. About two seconds after, realized, that he didn’t actually want to lose the photo. Despite the emotional roller coaster he just went on, having that picture was also a weird crutch, and he wanted it back. He walked around where he thought he had thrown it, and used his phone flashlight to look at the ground. There was a weird patch of dirt that was left without grass growing on it. It was still early in the spring, but everywhere else around it had grass and flowers popping up, except this spot. And his crumpled photo was directly on top of it.

Jack bent down and picked up his photo, but kept looking at the patch of dirt. He thought that maybe someone had buried something here, at first he thought it was a body, but then decided that there would be MORE flowers and plants. A decomposing body was great fertilizer, at least according to tv and movies. So, it was probably artificial. He had a moment where he wondered if it was a murder weapon, before shaking off the idea. If there had been a murder near campus recently enough that the soil was still affected by the digging, the town would have known. It was probably like, someone’s ex boyfriend’s sweatshirt or something. But now Jack was curious. He chewed on his lips, and grabbed a large stick to poke the earth with. It was pretty compact, but he was on a mission now. He looked around and found a piece of bark that could be used as a shovel and got to work.

Jack had been digging for less that five minutes when he felt resistance. It didn’t feel like a rock, it felt less solid. He threw the bark to the side, and started using his hands to unearth whatever it was a little more. He still had no idea what he was looking at. The light on his phone was only so powerful, and it was as dark as it could get in the night. He thought it looked like fabric. It was wrapped around something though, but he couldn’t figure out what.

So he decided to keep digging. He didn’t know how long he spent digging the length of the object, but the air had gone still and the stars shone bright when he realized that he WAS digging around the length of a body. Somehow, he wasn’t sure how, he hadn’t noticed it before, but he got to a neck, and a head and instead of stopping to call the police like a sane person, he carefully reached down and brushed the dirt away from the figures face. He had basically completely unearthed the person from almost a foot of compact dirt, but the person didn’t look like he’d been dead for longer than a few hours. It didn’t make sense.

Jack grabbed his phone and shone the light towards the body’s face, and almost jumped. The person looked like they were just asleep. It was eerie. Jack knew he should DEFINITELY call the police now, because, oh my god what was he doing unearthing a BODY in the WOODS at 3 am. But instead he opted to lean closer to the body. It didn’t like look like he were much older than the frogs, and Jack’s heart broke. Who had killed this poor kid and just dumped him in the woods? And why had nobody reported him missing, or anything?

Jack sighed, and sat back on his heels looking at the closed eyes of the body, wondering what the kid was like when he was alive. His heart hurt for this person, and he whispered, “I’m so sorry bud.”

That’s when Jack saw the eyes open. They were large and black and full of what Jack thought was anger. Before he could even scream, a dirt covered hand sprang out of the ground and grabbed Jack’s arm, pulling him closer to the figure. The person, or thing, slowly rose out of the ground, shaking off dirt as he sat up, all the time holding Jack’s forearm so tight that Jack was afraid to even try to pull away. The person came face to face with Jack, and for a moment, Jack was able to make out details of his face. The blond haired black eyed pale monster in front of him looked so innocent and friendly, and then a second later, he was bearing his teeth to show off two abnormally sharp long canines.

Jack, in that moment, thought his life was over. This was it. A weird animal-boy hybrid was about to eat him, and not a single person knew where he was. Johnson thought he at the Haus, and the rest of the team assumed he was in his room. They might even find his remains on a morning jog, if there was anything left to find.

But this person had a different plan. He took his free hand not grabbing Jack, and scratched at Jack’s arm, drawing blood instantly. Jack watched in horror as the guy brought his mouth to the giant cut on Jack’s arm and began sucking on it.

He was drinking Jack’s blood, and Jack was too mortified to even try to get away. He just watched, and started to feel dizzy, until suddenly the guy released Jack’s arm and looked up at Jack. His eyes were brown now, and his fangs were gone.

“I’m so sorry. I know that was incredibly rude, but it’s been… well I don’t know. A long time.”

Jack just stared at the guy, whose face was still covered in Jack’s blood.

“Oh, where are my manners. I’m Eric, and thank you so much for uncovering me. Who knows if I would ever have been found if you hadn’t come along.”

“I-I’m Jack. What are you?” Jack managed to stammer out. He could tell he was shaking.

“Oh honey, you’re shaking, is it because you’re cold, or did I take too much? I wasn’t trying to it’s just been so long…”  Eric said looking down.

“I think, I think I’m just confused. Are you a… va- uh”

“Vampire? Yeah I guess.”

Jack felt himself begin to fall over, but couldn’t stop it as the world went black. When he blinked his eyes open a minute later, Eric was looking at him worried, and he noticed his arm was bandaged buy a makeshift wrap that seemed to be made out of the scarf he had been wearing.

“Oh my god, Jack, ok you’re awake. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to take that much blood, but I literally couldn’t function, ideally I would have taken NONE of your blood, I-I try not to for as long as I can, you know, I can go about a week, but then-”

“Eric!”

“Sorry, I tend to ramble when I’m nervous…”

“Why are YOU nervous?” Jack asked, slowly sitting up.

“I thought I killed you! And-and I just woke up, and I don’t know where I am, or when I am, or what even happened to me, and you freed me and I almost killed you!” Eric said, frantically.

“I’m okay, I’m not close to death or anything, I’m just tired and hungry, and now maybe a pint of blood less than normal. And well um, you don’t look like you’re dressed too differently than I am, so I’m guessing it hasn’t been THAT long,” Jack said, realizing he somehow became the one comforting a vampire.

“Jack, please, tell me what year is it?”

“2015.”

Eric let out a sigh of relief, “It’s only been 20 years, okay, okay. I can handle that.”

“Eric?”

“Mhhm?

“Am I going to be turned into a vampire?” Jack asked, as he untied the scarf from his bloodied arm. The scratch wasn’t awful, but the area around it was still pink and raw from Eric’s mouth.

“What? Oh the scratch no, no, you should be fine. It’s only if we actively bite someone. I’m just glad I had the good senses to scratch you. I don’t think I’ve bitten someone since I was turned, but I also don’t think I’ve ever been starved for 20 years so.” Eric shrugged.

“You’re covered in dirt.”

“Well I was buried in it for a while,” Eric said with a sarcastic laugh.

“Right, sorry, what I meant was, we should get you cleaned up. I don’t live too far from here.”

“Oh honey, you’ve already been so kind, you don’t need to do anything else.”

“I’m not going to leave you here alone and scared and dirty, Eric, it’s ok, just… let me help you?” Jack said, as he moved to stand up.

Eric nodded and took Jack’s hand. Jack was still a little dizzy from the whole ordeal, and ended up walking with an arm around Eric’s shoulder to help keep him steady. It only took a few extra minutes to reach the Haus.

Jack checked his phone. It was 4:20 in the morning. There was a chance Shitty was up with Lardo, but considering the day they had had and the distinct lack of weed smell, he figured he was safe. He motioned for Eric to be quiet and to follow him. Jack passed through the doorway, but Eric let go and didn’t follow.

“What’s wrong?” Jack whispered.

“Uh, so like you know Lost Boys? How they have to be invited in?” Eric whispered back, looking ashamed.

“Oh, that’s real?”

“That part is, at least.”

“Well, Eric, please come inside my Haus,”Jack said, holding out his hand for Eric to grab ahold of again. Eric smiled and followed him in.

Once upstairs, Jack got the shower on and running, made sure for the eighteenth time that the door on Shitty’s side was locked, and grabbed a sweatshirt and the only pants in his room that would stay on Eric, which were an embarrassingly small pair of athletic shorts. He handed them to Eric who picked up the shorts and smirked.

“Why do you have these?”

“They’re laundry day shorts, don’t worry about it,” Jack said, feeling his cheeks turn bright red.

“Mmk, if you say so. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

 

With that Jack was left to think about what the fuck was happening. Somehow his nice little detour into the woods had left him with a scratched up arm and a new vampire friend. He realized that he hadn’t even thought about the picture, or even the game, in a few hours at this point. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the crumpled picture. Sighing, he moved it into a desk drawer and put one of his history textbooks on top, and called it progress.

A few minutes later, Eric came out of the bathroom wearing the clothes that Jack had given him. The sweatshirt was so long, it covered most of the shorts, essentially making Eric look pantless. Jack couldn’t look away for a moment, taken aback by how normal Eric looked, and how hot he looked.

“What, did I miss a spot? Some of that dirt was really caked on…” Eric said, noticing Jack staring.

“Uh, no I don’t think so. Um. So we do have that couch downstairs, but honestly, it’s kind of a death trap of bodily fluids and beer, so I thought if you wanted to stay in here, that might be more comfortable. I mean. I guess, I don’t know if you even sleep? Or would need it at this point?” Jack said, unsure of what the next move should be.

“Oh, well. I mean, despite what most people think, vampires can have a normal sleep schedule, but like, you’re right I don’t really to catch up that much right now.”

“You can still stay here if you want,” Jack said, hoping Eric would say yes, “I mean, I really need sleep, I can’t believe I’m still away honestly. But you can use my laptop to watch Netflix or something, I won’t mind.”

“Uh, what’s Netflix?”

“Right, twenty years. Uh, it’s got like a bunch of movies and tv shows streaming, so you can watch them on the computer. And you can watch an entire season without commercials,” Jack tried to explain as best he could.

“Oh, that sounds awesome!”

Eric looked excited, so Jack set him up, gave him a few recommendations, and before he knew it was falling asleep to the sound of The Office and Eric’s soft muffled giggles.

 

Jack woke to light streaming through his window. He had a groggy moment of confusion before the events of the night came back to him, and he bolted up. Eric was sitting at his desk, reading one of Jack’s textbooks, with a pen and paper out taking notes. Jack looked at the alarm clock to see it was 8.

“Hey, did you turn my alarms off?” Jack asked in a hoarse voice.

Eric turned and smiled at Jack, “You’re awake! Uh, yeah I did. It was like 4:45 when you fell asleep, so I thought that a 5:30 alarm was a little unnecessary. I’m sorry if I ruined a routine, but you looked like you needed the extra hours.”

“I did need it, thanks. Has anyone knocked at the door?” Jack asked, mostly wondering about Shitty.

“Nope.”

“Hm, ok. What are you doing?” Jack asked leaning over to see Eric’s neat handwriting in his notebook.

“Oh, uh, nothing.”

Jack just raised an eyebrow.

“I’m just writing down all the things that are inaccurate.”

“That’s a lot,” Jack said looking at the small writing filling the page.

“It’s all small details. You wouldn’t be able to know unless you were there.”

“Were you there?” Jack asked, trying to figure out what section of his book Eric was in.

“For some of it.” Eric left it vague.

Jack just nodded and got out of bed. He was sore, probably from digging all night, and realized his hands were raw and cut up as well as his arm. He looked at the scratch from Eric a little closer and winced.

“I’m so sorry about that, Jack, I-”

“It’s really ok, Eric, I mean it freaked me out, but uh, I just should probably cover it,” Jack said heading towards the bathroom. He flung open the door to see a naked Shitty brushing his teeth. They made eye contact, and Jack slammed the door back closed.

“Who was that?” Eric asked with a grin on his face.

“That would be Shitty. He lives on the other side of the bathroom. If he asks, I like tripped and scratched myself on a tree or something and you were just helping me out ok?” Jack said, sounding kind of frantic.

“Ok, of course.” Eric said softly before turning back to the textbook.

A moment later, Shitty shouted from the bathroom, “Pants are on, bro, you’re safe!” and Jack opened the door again. Shitty looked him up and down and said, “Dude you look like shit.”

“Fuck off,” Jack said, rolling his eyes, but then he looked in the mirror and frowned. “Oh. I do.”

His hair was sticking up everywhere, his face still had some dirt rubbed in, he had bags under his eyes, and he had the aforementioned cuts all over.

“Jesus, Jack, what happened to you? I thought you were in bed last night, but I heard the door open at like 4:30 in the morning,” Shitty asked concern lacing his words.

“I walked Johnson to campus. He wanted to see his girlfriend, and then I took the long way back.”

“Was the long way literally through hell?”

“No, I went on the cross country path for a bit,” Jack said, rummaging through the medicine cabinet, trying to find the Neosporin. Shitty noticed his arm at that moment, and gasped.

“Jack, dude, should I be worried?” Shitty said, grabbing the bandages from Jack’s hands and beginning to help him.

“No, no, I just tripped, it was dark. It was stupid, but it was a mistake. Plus, Eric found me, so I wasn’t alone,” Jack said, jabbing a thumb towards his room.

Shitty noticed Eric for apparently the first time. He smiled and waved, to Eric who had turned to watch what was happening. Eric smiled and waved back.

“Dude, he’s cute, and he’s in your clothes?” Shitty said, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

“Shut up, Shits, it’s not like that, he just needed something to sleep in,” Jack said quietly, but with a small smile that didn’t escape Shitty’s notice.

Shitty helped Jack clean out the scratch and wrap it up. There was no way he didn’t notice how messed up Jack’s fingers were as well, but Jack counted it as a blessing that he didn’t say anything. Jack knew he needed to shower but he didn’t feel that up to it, so opted for washing his face and using a lot of deodorant, all under the close watch of Shitty.

“Shits, I’m really ok, you don’t need to hover over me, ok?” Jack said after he brushed his teeth.

“Ok, man, if you say so, but you know you can tell me anything, right?” Shitty said, in a serious tone that Jack hadn’t heard him use in a while.

“Of course.” Jack turned around and saw Eric with his nose buried in the history book again.

“Hey, Eric?”

“Mmm?” Eric mumbled looking up at Jack.

“This is my friend, he goes by Shitty, can you please tell him that I didn’t self inflict this scratch on my arm?” Jack said.

“Bro, I didn’t mean-”

“It’s ok, Shitty, I know what you meant, and I appreciate the concern, but I’m ok.”

“Jack tripped on a weird root, and scratched himself up on a tree. I just happened to be in the area. Our two existential midnight walks happened to collide,” Eric said with a smile. Then he added, “Nice you meet you… Shitty.”

“Nice to meet you too, thanks for caring for my bro.”

Eric nodded and fell silent.

“So… Breakfast?” Jack asked, looking towards Eric.

“Oh, well, I’m not… I uh. Sure.”

“Right, right, uh, we can, uh.”

“This is sufficiently awkward, so I’m going to leave you guys with a ‘nice’ and a ‘use protection’ and take my exit,” Shitty said before walking out of the bathroom and into his own room.

Jack was worried that things were now awkward, until Eric started laughing.

“He’s funny. But in all seriousness, we can go down for food if you want, I just won’t eat anything. It doesn’t do much for me.”

Jack laughed nervously, “Right. You’re not like… hungry are you?”

“Nope! I really did take a lot from you last night, I really am-”

“Don’t say ‘sorry’.”

“Apologetic?” Eric said, finishing his sentence.

Jack laughed and nodded, “Fair play. You do look less, well, less dead than you did last night. Considerably less fangs as well.”

“Yeah, they really only come out when I’m eating or if I’m like in danger or something.”

“Of course.” Jack was interrupted by his stomach growling.

 

The kitchen was of course full of Samwell hockey players. Holster and Ransom were at the table discussing some tv show, Lardo was on the counter next to Shitty both drinking coffee like their life depended on it, and the frogs were all three standing around the fridge looking at the egg carton with two eggs left in it. However, everyone stopped what they were doing when Jack and Eric walked in.

“Uh, hello everyone,” Eric said with a smile and wave.

“This is Eric, he helped me out last night when I tripped on my way back to the Haus. Please be nice. Chris, are there any more eggs?” Jack said, trying to move past introductions as fast as possible.

“Excuse me, what?” Lardo asked, catching up to what Jack had just said.

“Oh, he just scraped himself up a little bit, and I helped him back to the Haus is all,” Eric said, slightly nervously.

“And you stayed the night?” Holster said with a grin.

“Holster shut it or you’ll be helping Lardo with the gear count tomorrow. He needed a place to crash.”

“Holster, keep talking, I don’t wanna deal with your gear tomorrow,” Lardo said groaning.

“Lards, you know we’ll help you. Don’t worry,” Jack said walking towards the coffee near her on the counter.

“So, Eric, you got a nickname?” Ransom asked, looking Eric up and down.

“Uh. No?”

“What’s your last name?” Holster asked.

“Bittle.”

“Eric Bittle. We can work with that. Just give us a few hours,” Ransom said, turning towards Holster.

“You’re not on the lacrosse team are you?” Dex said from behind Eric, causing him to spin around.

“Wha- no?”

“Mmk, good.”

“Dex has beef with the lacrosse team, I think he just needs to chill though,” Nursey said.

“O-okay?”

“Alright. Well that’s enough,” Jack said. Grabbing some pop tarts, and his coffee, Jack ushered Eric back up to his room and close the door.

“Sorry, they’re… a lot.”

“It’s ok, they were nice,” Eric said with chuckle.

Jack took a moment to appreciate the way the light made Eric’s hair look like gold.

“Um, so I don’t want to be pushy, but what is your plan now?” Jack asked after a beat.

“Oh. Well. I suppose I should find my friends. If they’re still around. We’re close to Boston, right?”

“Yup, like a twenty minute drive.”

“Cool, yeah I guess now I go back to trying to blend in. I should actually probably go sooner rather than later,” Eric said, looking at his feet frowning.

“Right of course.”

Eric looked up at Jack, and smiled, “Thank you, Jack. For saving me. I can’t thank you enough.”

“Thank you for helping me out too, Eric.”

Eric looked confused, but let it go, “Well, I should head out now, before I become a thing. No chance you have any other clothes that might fit me?”

“No, sorry, but here,” Jack moved to his wallet and grabbed some cash. He noticed the absence of the picture, but for once, he wasn’t bothered by it.

“Here take some cash, you’ll probably need it.”

“Oh Jack-”

“Don’t worry about it. Take care of yourself Eric.”

Eric smiled, leaned forward and kissed Jack carefully on the cheek. Jack smiled and watched Eric leave.

 

He didn’t think about the game for the rest of the day.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh look who's back!

Jack was trying to focus on his homework, but his eyes kept wandering back to the notes that Eric had left him. When Shitty came knocking on his door, Jack couldn’t even be mad. 

“Soooo, he was cute,” Shitty said, raising an eyebrow.

“I guess,” Jack said, trying to be as unassuming as possible. 

“So uh, what happened last night? Did you really not come home until 4:30?” Shitty asked, crossing his arms like a disappointed parent. 

Jack sighed, “I don’t know what happened, I was just mulling over the game and then suddenly I was walking through the woods at 2am tripping over a tree root. I was on the ground, kind of a mess, and Eric literally ran into me, on his own late night angst walk, and we just talked for a while before coming back.”

“Did you get digits? You two seemed to get along well. I mean, he slept in your room,” Shitty asked, causing Jack to glare at him.

“I just mean, you rarely even let me in there most days,” Shitty said holding up his hands defensively. 

“Oh, well, he was just freaking out a little bit about… some stuff. So I didn’t want to send him back home alone at 4 in the morning. That’s all.”

Shitty nodded knowingly. He waited a second and then asked, “So how are you?”

“My arms fine, it wasn’t a bad scratch and I cleaned it out.”

“That’s good, but I mean, about the game yesterday.”

Jack paused, “Oh. Right. I mean, it still hurts, but I’m alright, actually.”

“Huh,” Shitty moved from the doorway to Jack’s desk chair and started playing with the random things on Jack’s desk, “I’m kinda surprised, but proud of you bro.”

Jack grunted in return, and finally decided to try to work on his homework, and looked down to see he had the wrong textbook.

“Shitty, can you pass me my American History book? It’s somewhere on my desk.”

Shitty searched for a second before finding it, and the photo underneath it. 

“Here. What happened to that photo?” Shitty asked, tossing the book onto the bed next to Jack. 

“Oh. Nothing.”

“Ok.”

After a moment Shitty said, “I’m sorry about the game, man. I know it sucks.”

Jack smiled sadly, and nodded, “S’ok.”

After a few minutes of Jack failing to read his book and Shitty rambling on about nothing, Jack finally interrupted.

“Hey Shits?”

“Yeah?” 

“Go take a fucking shower, you smell like ass,” Jack said with a smirk. 

“HARSH WORDS!” Shitty said standing up dramatically to smell himself, “But fair call. I’ll be right back.” 

Jack laughed as Shitty disappeared into the bathroom. He was looking over Eric’s notes again, tracing the curves of the letters with his fingers when he heard his bathroom door creak.

“Jack, what the hell happened? Don’t lie to me, bro.” Shitty was standing in front of Jack with Eric’s blood covered, dirt caked shirt in his hand.

Jack went pale. He completely forgot about Eric’s clothes in the hamper. He had no idea how to tell the truth to Shitty in a way that didn’t make him sound crazy or in need of some real medical help. 

“Shitty, I don’t know how to explain,” Jack said simply, shaking his head. 

“There’s a lot of blood on this, like more than there should be from a scratch. And it’s completely covered in dirt. Was Eric wearing this?” Shitty asked, the concern clear in his facial expression. 

“Yes, but-”

“Did he hurt you, Jack?” Shitty said his eyes narrowing. 

“No!” 

“Jack…”

“I mean. Not on purpose?” Jack said, feeling worse about lying. 

“Fuck man, he stayed here last night? After doing that to you?” Shitty said pointing at Jack’s arm. 

“Shitty, you don’t understand, he-”

“He hurt you!”

“You’ve hurt me! You’ve accidently hit me too hard into the boards, or-or slammed me on the ground too hard, it’s not a big deal,” Jack said, trying to fix the situation he was in, “Besides, Eric’s not coming back, so it doesn’t matter.”

As if summoned, there was a frantic knocking on Jack’s door and Eric’s voice calling from the other side, “Jack, Jack, please I-I remember what happened, please I need help.” 

“Jack, you need to take care of yourself-” Shitty started but before he could finish, Jack had already stood up and swung the door open. 

Eric came stumbling in with tears in his eyes, and a deep scratch on his neck. 

“Eric, Eric, shhh, it’s okay, what happened?” Jack said, wiping the tears away from Eric’s cheeks. 

“They buried me.”

“Who did?”

Eric looked over at Shitty and back at Jack. 

“What the fuck is going on!” Shitty yelled, before Jack shushed him. 

“Jack, I couldn’t eat while I was gone, but I’m-I’m still so hungry. I shouldn’t be here, I already took so much,” Eric said, trembling in Jack’s arms. 

Jack noticed that Eric’s skin looked paler, and his eyes looked darker, and he sighed, “Eric hey, bud, it’s ok. We can’t do this all the time, but for now it’s ok again.”

“No, Jack, I shouldn’t-”

“I’d rather you do it here, with me, than try to figure out another way, if you’re this hungry.”

Eric nodded, “I-I guess. But what about-” He nodded towards Shitty who was just watching, baffled. 

“Shits. I’m so sorry but this is why I couldn’t explain what was going on, you wouldn’t believe it if I told you,” Jack said, before turning back to Eric and extending the opposite arm that Eric used last time. 

“It might be easier to use the same arm,” Eric said, shaking still, “Just for afterwards, so you don’t have two messed up arms.”

“Wait, what the fuck are you about to do to him?” Shitty started to yell, but Jack shushed him again. 

Jack nodded at Eric and switched arms, mentally preparing for the pain this time. Eric looked from Jack to Shitty standing behind him, and back to Jack, as his eyes went black and fangs began to show themselves from his mouth. He grabbed Jack’s arm and made another scratch higher up on Jack’s arm and brought it up to his mouth. 

Shitty just watched in horror as Jack stifled his scream and groaned in discomfort while Eric sucked at his arm. He didn’t drink as long as he had the first time and quickly let Jack’s arm go. Jack fell to the bed and laid down, breathing heavy. Eric stood in his spot shaking slightly. 

“Jesus Fuck, what just happened?” Shitty shouted.

“Shitty for the love of god will you please be quiet,” Jack said softly, as he tried to stay awake. 

Eric, back to normal looking, hurried over to Jack, and began pushing his hair out of his eyes.

“Jack, oh lord, I’m so sorry, thank you so much, honey,” Eric was whispering into Jack’s ear. He turned to Shitty, “You should get him some water and something to eat. He needs it right now.” 

Shitty was staring at Eric’s blood covered face, but ultimately nodded and went downstairs. 

“Eric, you’re covered in blood.”

“Oh shush now, how are you feeling?”

“Light headed, but fine. I like you running your fingers through my hair though. That’s nice.” 

“I didn’t even realize, oh, oh dear, I’m getting blood in your hair,” Eric said jerking his hand back.

“I need to shower anyway.”

Jack slowly sat up on the bed and looked at Eric’s blood covered face, noticing the scratch on his neck. 

“Eric...”

Shitty opened the door aggressively at that moment, with a water bottle and an plate of cheese and crackers in hand. 

“Here’s your food, what the fuck is happening.” Shitty said half throwing the food on the bed next to Jack.  

“It’s all my fault…” Eric started.

“I gathered that,” Shitty spat out.

“Shitty! You need to chill the fuck out man, I’m alright,” Jack yelled back, “Eric is a vampire, okay? I found him on my walk on the cross country trail. He was buried. Like a foot in the ground, and I uncovered him. He’s been there for twenty years, and he was hungry. He could have easily killed me but he didn’t.”

“A vampire?” Shitty said disbelieving. 

“You saw his fangs!” Jack yelled. 

“Fangs? What, no, I saw him scratch your arm open and start sucking at it like a freak-” Shitty was cut off by a sigh from Eric. 

Eric stood up and looked at Shitty. He reached up to the cut in his neck and dug his thumb into the open wound, causing both Jack and Shitty to gasp. His eyes started turning black, and his fangs started to creep down. He looked paler even in the quick transformation. He looked Shitty in the eye.

“Believe us now?” He snarled out.

“Holy shit dude,” Shitty managed to whisper. 

Eric balled his hands into tight fists and took deep calculated breaths to calm down and a few seconds later, was back to normal. 

“It comes out as a defense mechanism too. That fucking hurt though, so please, lord, tell me you get it?” Eric said, pleading to Shitty, who was now sitting on the bed wide eyed. 

Shitty just nodded his head.

“Shits, you can’t tell anyone, alright?” Jack said, resting a hand on his shocked friend’s shoulder. 

“I don’t think anyone would believe me anyway. You trust him?” Shitty said looking at Jack. 

“I don’t have a reason not to.”

Shitty nodded and stood up.

“This is fucking weird as balls. I’m going to go lie down a bit. I’m not sure how to process this honestly. But, I’m sorry I like yelled at you and shit.” Shitty gave Eric an awkward pat on the arm before heading back to his room, leaving Eric and Jack alone. 

“Is this going to be an issue?” Eric asked, looking more worried than upset.

“I don’t think so, Shitty’s a lot, but he trusts me. And I trust him. How do I help you, though? With your neck, I mean, like, what’s the deal with vampires and healing?” Jack asked, reaching towards Eric’s neck without quite touching it. 

“It’ll heal on its own soon enough. I should probably bandage it though. I’m still not 100%. And… Boston took a lot out of me.”

“What happened?” 

“I didn’t have any memory of what happened to me, what caused me to get buried. I assumed it was like, some misguided hunter? It happens sometimes, people figure it out and think that a wooden stake will do us in. Obviously not, but whatever. But then I got to Boston and I started getting flashbacks. I was with… a boy,” Eric sighed and sat next Jack back on the bed.

“A boy?”

“He was human. I really liked him, and I got a little careless I guess, but the guys I lived with, they didn’t like that I was with him.”

“Because he was human?”

“And because he was a guy,” Eric let out a harsh laugh, “I’ve been alive for a while and been with a lot of different people, but these were the first outwardly homophobic vampires I ever had to deal with.” 

Jack had the urge to hug Eric and never let go, but instead chose to rest a hand on Eric’s leg, hoping it was come comfort.

“I realized that I didn’t have anything in Boston for me. The guy was in college when I was buried, I don’t even think he knew what I was. Now he’s probably married with kids somewhere and I’m still. Me. I made it about four miles outside the city before I saw Charles. He was the… leader for lack of a better word. Lucky for me he was alone. I managed to get away with just this,” Eric waved vaguely towards his neck, “He just wanted me out of town. He was pissed, I guess I wasn’t supposed to be buried so close to civilization, but that’s what he gets when he surrounds himself with lazy assholes.”

“Jesus,” Jack muttered, “So. Now what?”

Eric closed his eye, and Jack saw a tear fall down his cheek, cutting its way through the blood that was more or less dried on now. 

“I-I don’t know.”

“Stay here,” Jack said.

Eric looked up at him, tears still in his eyes, “What? No, I can’t…” 

“Please, at least for a bit, let me help you.” 

This time Eric nodded and leaned into Jack, who put a careful arm around Eric’s shoulder. They sat like this for a while until Eric went to wipe a tear away and got dried blood onto his sleeve. 

“I should uh clean up,” he smiled, and looked sheepish, “No chance I could borrow those clothes again?” 

“Of course, Eric.”

 

_/•\\_

 

The next few weeks went by fair smoothly considering Jack was smuggling a vampire in the Haus. The cover was that Eric was a transfer at Samwell that Jack had class with, and was having a hard time with his roommate, so Jack invited him over a lot. It ended up working out nicely, because Johnson moved out a few months early, saying that he had signed a lease with his girlfriend two towns over and would just commute the rest of the year, so Eric should take his room! Jack didn’t ask why he was signing a lease in March, when he was about to graduate. 

Eric got along great with the rest of the Haus. Shitty even came around, and while he still seemed a little apprehensive about Eric, they’d started to form a real friendship. Everyone else also genuinely enjoyed hanging around Eric, and Holster and Ransom even gave him his own nickname. They just started calling him Bitty one day, and it stuck. Jack was the only one who still ever called him Eric. 

Bitty would sneak into the lectures that Jack took as easy A’s, and take notes on the historical inaccuracies, which of course would lead Jack to wonder how old Bitty really was. But he never asked. Jack did find out some things about him though. Like the garlic thing was a myth, mostly. It was just one clan way back in the day who all happened to be allergic. Crosses and religious imagery made him uncomfortable, and Bitty likened it to when feel yourself getting anxiety over something specific. Bitty had stayed away from churches for most of his life because it. 

Jack learned that vampires were apparently really hard to kill unless you were also a vampire. They couldn’t die from wooden stakes, or gunshots, or even starvation, even if it made them weak. Jack also learned that technically, Bitty could survive off of animal blood, but it was the vampire equivalent of eating plain rice with butter for every meal. 

Jack also learned that Bitty was a baker. He came home after class one day and there was a fresh pie on the table, cooling.

“What’s this?” Jack asked eyeing the pie and Bitty cleaning the dishes at the sink.

“A pie, as a thank you for everyone for letting me stay here.”

“You bake? But you don’t eat…”

“I wasn’t ALWAYS a vampire, Jack. It’s an old family recipe. I can’t really tell if it tastes good, but most people I make it for love it,” Bitty said, turning around look at Jack. 

“So, I’m guessing no one else is home?” 

“Not right now, Holster and Ransom are in the library, Shitty is with Lardo somewhere.” Bitty paused before asking, “Wanna go watch a historically inaccurate documentry while the pie cools?” 

Jack smiled and nodded. He waited for Bitty to wash off his hands, and followed him up to Jack’s room. They picked out a show on conspiracy theories, at Bitty’s request, and settled onto Jack’s bed. Jack was incredibly aware of how close they were sitting on the bed, but he tried to focus on the show. The laptop was small, you had to sit close to see what was going on, he rationalized. 

The episode that Bitty chose was on the Cold War. It detailed a few theories ranging from the 60’s to the 80’s and Bitty has something to say about all of them. They watched for a few minutes, with Bitty interjecting occasionally to correct a fact when finally Jack built up the courage to ask.

“Eric, can I ask you a question?” 

Bitty thought for a moment, pretty sure of what was coming, “Only if I can ask you one after.”

“Fair enough,” Jack said. He paused, and then asked, “How old are you really?”

Bitty took a deep breath, and paused the show. He looked up at Jack slowly and let out his breath, “I suppose I can tell you. It’s just weird being so open about all of this with a non-vampire, I’m still a little anxious about it after what happened in Boston…”

Jack nodded, but waited patiently.

“I’m not ancient, you know. I was born in 1905, but was turned in 1924. So I’m only... “

“110?”

“On May 5th, yeah. Ugh, that feels so gross to say outloud. I don’t FEEL 110.” 

“You were buried for 20 of those years, to be fair. So do you not age?” 

Bitty shrugged, “I don’t think so? I don’t really know a lot about all of this, honestly. I’m still learning. That’s why I was in Boston, I was learning more about what I am.”

Jack had about a thousand more questions, but he didn’t want to bombard Bitty. So he just nodded and stayed silent, processing what he did say.

“My turn,” Bitty said, jolting Jack out of his thoughts.

“What?”

“My turn to ask,” Bitty said, wringing his hands nervously, “Why were you digging? What did you bury that you were looking for that night you unearthed me?”

“Oh,” Jack said, unsure of how to explain what he was doing that night. He stood up, went to his desk, and grabbed the photo from its hiding spot still under his textbook.

“I was looking for this. We lost our last game that night,” Jack started, sitting back down on the bed. 

Bitty frowned, nodding. They had talked briefly about the season before, but Jack hadn’t dwelled much on the loss. 

“I walked Johnson back to campus, and just wanted some time alone so I went down that path. I was not in a great headspace and, I don’t know, that photo is just a reminder to me to be better, but then Johnson had said something that freaked me out. So I threw it out of frustration,” Jack said, carefully handing the photo to Bitty, who looked over it quietly, “But the second I threw it, I regretted it and wanted it back. It landed on the spot you were buried. There was no grass or anything growing where you were, and for some reason, I just really wanted to know why. So I dug.”

“Who is this?” Bitty asked, tracing his finger over part of Kent’s face.

“He and I used to play together in Juniors. We were really close. We don’t talk anymore, though.”

Bitty nodded, and looked at the words “Be Better” on the back of the photo. 

“I’m not as upset, anymore. I mean, rationally I know I’m a good player, I’ve signed with an NHL team, but…”

“But anxiety isn’t always rational?” Bitty finished.

Jack nodded. 

“So you weren’t, like trying to hiding a body or anything.”

Jack laughed, “Is that why you were nervous about asking?” 

“Hey! I don’t know! I’ve lived a weird life up until now, I just wanted to make sure. After what happened in Boston… I just wanted to make sure.” 

Jack’s smile faded, and he put an arm around Bitty, “No murdering homophobic vampires here. Just some idiot hockey players who enjoy spending time with you.”

Bitty rested his head on Jack’s shoulder and turned the Netflix show back on. 

“Thanks, Jack.”

“Of course, Bits.”

“Also, can I just say? Some of these JFK theories are insane! The Umbrella Man? Really?” 

Jack laughed and listened to Bitty criticize the crazy theories on the show they were watching. Neither one of them wanted to move, and although the pie was long cooled down, neither of them mentioned it while they sat with Bitty’s head on Jack’s shoulder, watching the show. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww look at them being cute! It would be a shame if something were to.... happen.... next chapter........

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi to me on tumblr at hockeyandpie!


End file.
